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@@@ Born in Sulphur Springs in 1922, Armstrong was married to Sybil (Shrode) when Uncle Sam called him into service at age 20. Drafted into the U.S. Army, Armstrong had to leave his young bride behind in Wichita Falls.

He tested for a position with the Army Air Force and traveled extensively throughout the <a href=http://www.radiorcs.com/page.php?sale=Jimmy-Choo-Boots-On-Sale>Jimmy Choo Outlet Online</a>  country for training before he moved on to base operations. It wasn鈥檛 long before he attained the rank of sergeant.
His last stop in the States was Patrick Henry, Va., to prepare for deployment in Europe. On Feb. 1, 1944, a convoy of 135 ships headed for Rome, arriving on the last day of the month.
鈥淭he Germans had just bombed that harbor so they wouldn鈥檛 let us go ashore until nightfall,鈥?he said.
The troops spent several days there. Shortly before heading out, he broke a finger on his right hand while playing catch with a former New York Yankees pitcher, who, according to Armstrong, could throw hard.
He was sent to see the medics at his new destination in Lecce, Italy, where he was assigned to the 98th Bomb Group, 345th Squadron. Instead of a controlling operation position, he became a cook. The next day, he was became head cook due to menu improvements.
Late night turn of events
As head cook, he worked from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. to ensure the mess hall was open at night. During one shift, a master sergeant stopped in for a late-night snack. As they talked Armstrong revealed he had been in controlling operations stateside. It turned out the man was the mechanic who maintained the commanding officer鈥檚 plane. He asked Armstrong if he wanted to be the controlling tower chief. He jumped at the chance.
It proved to be the most memorable experience in Armstrong鈥檚 service duty.
Under the call name of 鈥淐urry Tower,鈥?Armstrong was assigned to controlling operations of all the 15th Air Force take offs and landings. On June 5, 1944, as they prepared for D-Day, the planes were loaded with heavy bombs; the mission was to bomb the beach at Normandy in a pattern like rows of corn, he said. They were ready to go, but the weather didn鈥檛 cooperate. Instead, they rescheduled for June 6.
Tragedy at midnight
On D-Day, the pilots were to take off at midnight. Everything was timed down to the minute. There were 12 planes in each squadron, with the yellow squadron set to lead off. <a href=http://www.alportico.net/page.php?sale=Cheap-True-Religion-Brand-Jeans>Cheap True Religion Brand Jeans</a>  Since Armstrong couldn鈥檛 see the planes in the dark, he gave the order to the first one to go, and one by one the other pilots followed.
All went well until the sixth plane crashed on the runway about 120 feet from Armstrong. The plane knocked out 21 lights nearby and 鈥渟taggered him,鈥?he said.
Armstrong scrambled two ambulances, a fire truck, wrecker and a jeep with the call letters 鈥淐artwright.鈥?All were frantically trying to clear the runway. Cartwright called and said there was nothing left 鈥?the pilot, crew and gunners had all been killed. Early the next morning, Armstrong scoured the wreckage looking for identification but only found four of 12 dog tags.
Another pilot radioed and said they had hit something and would have to ditch. The crew jumped and was picked up in the water. Because of this and the earlier crash, time ran out for Armstrong, who had to scrap the rest of the mission. Only 16 of 48 planes had taken off.
There were other narrow escapes and additional memorable moments, but none like his D-Day experience. On April 19, 1945, his commanding officer said to shut down the tower and pull out.
In all, Armstrong received nine bronze stars and served in campaigns in southern and northern France, Normandy, Air Offensive Europe, Air Combat Balkans, North Apennines, Rome-Arno and the Rhine. He was <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Michael-Kors-New-York>Michael Kors New York</a>  discharged in San Antonio after a nine-day trip on the Queen Mary and went home to his wife.
The couple had to virtually get reacquainted with one another after so much time apart. And Armstrong never talked about his wartime experiences with her. They went on to raise five children. She passed away in 1992 of cancer after 50 years of marriage.
Although Armstrong is proud of his service, his one regret is not sharing his time in the military with his wife. Only recently did he began to open up.
鈥淚t seemed like when I got out of the service I was trying to regroup,鈥?Armstrong said. 鈥淚 just never did talk about it.鈥?